Overnight Scuba Diving Trips
Nine years after being employed by a sea kayak touring and sales company I’ve finally got around to aquiring myself one. I have spent the last six years paddling the areas rivers in an older style white water kayak, but this just wasn’t suitable for the coastal zones.
This was getting extremely frustrating as I live 200 yards from the beach at Clifton Beach, a coastal suburb just north of Cairns .
I’d already explored the Russell River numerous times, the Upper Barron River was getting a bit boring also, so I had to get into that ocean.
As Cairns is a small country center the purchase of a seakayak and the assorted accessories is not the most simple task. You can either go with Ebay, wait for someone to sell it secondhand or just work with what you can find local.
Thats what I did. I made the most of what I could find, with the notion of then turning it into what I needed. I found a fairly affordable chinease made boat brand new. Now I knew that the fittings would be cheap, I also knew it probably wouldn’t be 100% watertight. Luckily I was enjoyably surprised.
The only fittings that will need changing are the elastic cord deck ropes and elastic cord steering lines. I may substitute the inner steering lines with stainless wire as needs be.
As for kitting out the kayak with emergency gear my list is as follows
* V Flag for attratring attention
* Emergency tool containing whistle, mini compass, match striker, signalling mirror and small watertight storage for matches.
* Distress flares
* surplus paddle (cut into 3 sections for storage)
* Another signalling mirror ( I don’t desire only having one of anything that sinks)
* 3 x 1.5 liter containers of water
* 6 snap flouro glow sticks
* compact 1st aid kit
* thermal blanket
I already own some nautical charts as I’m a sailer, but I figure I’ll just copy relevant sections and laminate the smaller sheets. I have a compass ready to be fitted.
The expeditions I have planned in the immediate future to test everything out are Green Island, Fitzroy Island for the Fitzroy Island New Years Eve Party, Low Isles Dunk Island and Snapper Island.
In the future I plan to do the Hinchinbrook channel and paddle all the way the island. This is all leading up to the big expedition of Great Barrier Reef. I can fit approximately 100 pounds of camping gear and supplies without becoming too unseaworthy, so this should get me where I want to go. And I can sometimes tow a trolling line to replace my regular freeze dried diet with some fresh fish. I’ll also be stopping and camping so the barramundi gear will get a good work out too.